When an adoptive mother in Southwest Portland first came into contact with Kinship House, it was in court, and the nonprofit was on the enemy side.

Now Kinship House is an integral part of her life and her children’s lives. The nonprofit is a certified provider of outpatient mental health services to children touched by the foster care system.

The mother — who wished to remain anonymous to protect the identities of her children — said her three kids were so afraid of abandonment after adoption that they resisted attaching to her but also panicked when she left their sight.

“Somebody abandoned them,” she said. “They suffered an immense loss, which they are intensely aware of even if they don’t remember it clearly.”

Therapists at Kinship House helped her children understand that she is their “forever home,” she said.

Kinship House is actually a house. There is a kitchen with two large containers of animal cookies on the counter. The basement has a room for figurine toys and a room for art projects.

But those rooms aren’t there just to accommodate play. Those rooms are designed to help children in foster care communicate and process their memories, fears and emotions.

“These kids are in and out of a lot of institutions,” Heather Jefferis said. “We want this to be a safe place.”

Jefferis is the director of Kinship House, which welcomes children — and their families — who are currently in care or are dealing with problems after reunification or adoption.

How your donation helps

$5: Art therapy supplies

$25: Baby dolls for play therapy

$50: One week of electricity

$100: An hour of child therapy services

“Foster care is necessary,” Jefferis said, “but being removed from your family — no matter how difficult they are — is traumatizing.”

Therapists at the house do more than meet with kids throughout the day, Jefferis said. They attend parent-teacher meetings, visit homes and testify in court.

The mother in Southwest Portland first heard about Kinship House when a therapist testified on behalf of the family trying to adopt the children she now calls her own. The mother had co-fostered the children with that family and believed they were unsafe parents.

She won and was given custody of all three children, which wasn’t her intent. The children had deep-seated mental issues, she said, and she was desperate for help. Despite past feelings of animosity toward Kinship House, the mother made an appointment.

“It was a leap of faith,” she said, “but I just intuitively felt that this was going to be a good place for my children.”

She couldn’t have asked for a better result, she said. Her children have been seeing therapists at the house for four years. While there are still issues to be dealt with, she said, life at home and in school has improved immensely.

Before seeing a therapist, the daughter, the oldest of the three children, had violent fits of rage more than a dozen times a day, the mother said. But the little girl barely spoke. She didn’t communicate her thoughts, feelings or needs.

The mother clearly remembers a therapy session where that changed. The little girl was invited to select toys that she felt represented her or people in her life and act out scenarios in a small sandbox.

The girl, who had been in therapy for two to three years, suddenly began to act out a scene living with a foster family who she said didn’t love her.

“These were things that she had never verbalized before,” the mother said.

That’s exactly what Kinship House is all about, said Jefferis: helping kids and families communicate.

The nonprofit contracts with Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties, where there were more than 4,500 children in foster care at least once during 2012, according to data from Children First for Oregon, a nonpartisan nonprofit child advocacy organization.

Kinship House bills Oregon Health Plan and private insurers, but billing only covers about 70 percent of operations, Jefferis said. The remainder is covered by donations and grants.

Jefferis projects Kinship House will see about 500 children this year.

In 2012, the amount Kinship House was paid by insurance companies ($495,810) was barely more than the house paid its staff ($491,167). To cover rent, utilities, program services and other costs the nonprofit raised $242,810 through donations and grants.

The mother said her children finally reached a point in May when they didn’t need to visit the Kinship House on a regular basis. Now the family visits every few weeks.

They have a long journey ahead. The sons claim they don’t remember foster care, though the mother suspects they do, she said, and the daughter still steals food and hoards it in her bedroom. Fear of depravity and a desire for control still plague the young girl.

But the mother speaks confidently about the future. The therapists at the Kinship House are there for her, there for her children. They are all – mother, children, and Kinship House – in this for the long haul.